Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who was described as an “evil bitch” in the new film “Conviction,” says she enjoyed the movie but says it is inaccurate on at least one key point, reports the Boston Herald. The movie suggests that after an initial DNA test clears Kenneth Waters in the gruesome murder of a neighbor, Coakley's office allows him to languish in jail for almost another year. Not true, she said.
“That sequence of time is simply inaccurate and wrong. Kenny Waters did not sit in jail for months after (the defense team's) DNA results cleared him,” Coakley said. “Fact is, he was released from jail in less than two weeks,” adding, “To suggest that we weren't receptive to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man is just not accurate.” The way it really happened is that Coakley did not vacate Waters' conviction until after her office's own DNA test confirmed the findings of the first one. After spending 18 years in prison, Waters was freed February 27, 2001. His murder conviction was vacated four months later. Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project, who represented Waters, said Coakley should not be blamed for the length of time it took a lab to produce the final results. “You should understand that everything in the movie is true,” he said. “But the story is told from the clients' point of view.”